Life in motion

Every video on this site, in one place

Footage from the lab and the field, mostly high-speed and slowed way down. Scroll through, or jump to a full writeup: Do tadpoles even have lungs?, Why lose a lung?, and Bubble guts.

A small green frog tadpole (Rana clamitans) tries to breach It swims up mouth-first, but the surface doesn’t break. It stretches under the impact and springs back, sending the tadpole down without a breath. From Do tadpoles even have lungs?

An older, much larger Rana clamitans tadpole successfully breaches Breaching is closer to what whales do: coming up quickly through the surface and exchanging air while briefly above it. From Do tadpoles even have lungs?

A young tadpole bubble sucking Instead of breaking through the surface, the tadpole presses its mouth to the underside and sucks a pocket of the air-water interface down into its mouth. From Do tadpoles even have lungs?

Bubble sucking, a second view The same behavior from a different angle: mouth pressed to the surface, bubble pulled downward, then pinched off and swallowed. From Do tadpoles even have lungs?

Bubble sucking, up close Watch closely and you can see each phase of the breath, including the lungs emptying mid-suck and refilling afterward. From Do tadpoles even have lungs?

A pond snail walking along the underside of the surface The same surface tension that lets water striders stand on top of the water acts as a ceiling from below, and this snail is using it as a walking surface. From Do tadpoles even have lungs?

A pond snail (Physa heterostrophus) bubble-sucking No mouth involved this time: the pulmonary siphon does the same job, pulling the surface down and sealing off a bubble before drawing it in. From Do tadpoles even have lungs?

An ordinary air breath, from a tadpole with ordinary lungs Spea intermontana, filmed for comparison against the lungless breathing in Bubble guts and Why lose a lung?. Mouth open, straight up through the surface, gulp, done.